Header encoding for single carrier (SC) and/or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) using shortening, puncturing, and/or repetition

ABSTRACT

Header encoding for SC and/or OFDM signaling using shortening, puncturing, and/or repetition in accordance with encoding header information within a frame to be transmitted via a communication channel employs different respective puncturing patterns as applied to different portions thereof. For example, a first puncturing pattern is applied to a first portion of the frame, and a second puncturing pattern is applied to a second portion of the frame (the second portion may be a repeated version of the first portion). Shortening (e.g., by padding 0-valued bits thereto) may be made to header information bits before they undergo encoding (e.g., in an LDPC encoder). One or both of the information bits and parity/redundancy bits output from the encoder undergo selective puncturing. Moreover, one or both of the information bits and parity/redundancy bits output from the encoder may be repeated/spread before undergoing selective puncturing to generate a header.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENTS/PATENT APPLICATIONS Provisional Priority Claims

The present U.S. Utility patent application claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety and made part of the present U.S. Utility patent application for all purposes:

1. U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/111,685, entitled “60 GHz single carrier modulation,” (Attorney Docket No. BP20178), filed Nov. 5, 2008, pending.

2. U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/156,857, entitled “Header encoding/decoding,” (Attorney Docket No. BP20426), filed Mar. 2, 2009, pending.

3. U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/235,732, entitled “Header encoding for single carrier (SC) and/or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) using shortening, puncturing, and/or repetition,” (Attorney Docket No. BP20957), filed Aug. 21, 2009, pending.

Incorporation by Reference

The following U.S. Utility patent applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety and are made part of the present U.S. Utility patent application for all purposes:

1. U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 12/605,088, entitled “Baseband unit having bit repetitive encoded/decoding,” (Attorney Docket No. BP20178), filed Oct. 23, 2009, pending, which claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Application which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and made part of the present U.S. Utility patent application for all purposes:

-   -   a. U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/111,685, entitled         “60 GHz single carrier modulation,” (Attorney Docket No.         BP20178), filed Nov. 5, 2008, pending.

2. U.S. Utility application Ser. No. ______, entitled “Header encoding/decoding,” (Attorney Docket No. BP20426), filed concurrently on Nov. 4, 2009, pending, which claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entirety and made part of the present U.S. Utility patent application for all purposes:

-   -   a. U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/111,685, entitled         “60 GHz single carrier modulation,” (Attorney Docket No.         BP20178), filed Nov. 5, 2008, pending.     -   b. U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/156,857, entitled         “Header encoding/decoding,” (Attorney Docket No. BP20426), filed         Mar. 2, 2009, pending.     -   c. U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/235,732, entitled         “Header encoding for single carrier (SC) and/or orthogonal         frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) using shortening,         puncturing, and/or repetition,” (Attorney Docket No. BP20957),         filed Aug. 21, 2009, pending.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to encoding of a field within a frame to be transmitted within a communication systems; and, more particularly, it relates to encoding of header information within a communication device that is operative in accordance with one or both of single carrier (SC) or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling within such communication systems.

2. Description of Related Art

Data communication systems have been under continual development for many years. One such type of communication system that has been of significant interest lately is a communication system that employs iterative error correction codes (ECCs). Of particular interest is a communication system that employs LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code. Communications systems with iterative codes are often able to achieve lower bit error rates (BER) than alternative codes for a given signal to noise ratio (SNR).

A continual and primary directive in this area of development has been to try continually to lower the SNR required to achieve a given BER within a communication system. The ideal goal has been to try to reach Shannon's limit in a communication channel. Shannon's limit may be viewed as being the data rate to be used in a communication channel, having a particular SNR, that achieves error free transmission through the communication channel. In other words, the Shannon limit is the theoretical bound for channel capacity for a given modulation and code rate.

LDPC code has been shown to provide for excellent decoding performance that can approach the Shannon limit in some cases. For example, some LDPC decoders have been shown to come within 0.3 dB (decibels) from the theoretical Shannon limit. While this example was achieved using an irregular LDPC code with a length of one million, it nevertheless demonstrates the very promising application of LDPC codes within communication systems.

The use of LDPC coded signals continues to be explored within many newer application areas. Some examples of possible communication systems that may employ LDPC coded signals include communication systems employing 4 wire twisted pair cables for high speed Ethernet applications (e.g., 10 Gbps (Giga-bits per second) Ethernet operation according to the IEEE 802.3an (10 GBASE-T) emerging standard) as well as communication systems operating within a wireless context (e.g., in the IEEE 802.11 context space including the IEEE 802.11n emerging standard).

For any of these particular communication system application areas, near-capacity achieving error correction codes are very desirable. The latency constraints, which would be involved by using traditional concatenated codes, simply preclude their use in such applications in very high data rate communication system application areas.

Generally speaking, within the context of communication systems that employ LDPC codes, there is a first communication device at one end of a communication channel with encoder capability and second communication device at the other end of the communication channel with decoder capability. In many instances, one or both of these two communication devices includes encoder and decoder capability (e.g., within a bi-directional communication system). LDPC codes can be applied in a variety of additional applications as well, including those that employ some form of data storage (e.g., hard disk drive (HDD) applications and other memory storage devices) in which data is encoded before writing to the storage media, and then the data is decoded after being read/retrieved from the storage media.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to apparatus and methods of operation that are further described in the following Brief Description of the Several Views of the Drawings, the Detailed Description of the Invention, and the claims. Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention made with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate various embodiments of communication systems.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of an LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code bipartite graph.

FIG. 4A illustrates an embodiment of variable node update with reference to an LDPC code bipartite graph.

FIG. 4B illustrates an embodiment of check node update with reference to an LDPC code bipartite graph.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a frame showing the respective portions of preamble, header, and data therein.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/8 for use in a physical layer (PHY) frame to be transmitted in accordance with single carrier (SC) signaling.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/12 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of K/N (K and N integers) for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling.

FIG. 10 illustrates an alternative embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/8 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling.

FIG. 11, FIG. 12, and FIG. 13 illustrate various embodiments of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/7 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling.

FIG. 14 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of 9/56 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling.

FIG. 15 illustrates an embodiment of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using single carrier (SC) signaling with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation on an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) communication channel.

FIG. 16 illustrates an embodiment of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using SC signaling with an exponential decaying power delay profile (PDP) Rayleigh fading communication channel QPSK modulation.

FIG. 17 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of K/N (K and N integers) for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with OFDM signaling.

FIG. 18 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/12 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with OFDM signaling.

FIG. 19, FIG. 20 and FIG. 21 illustrate various embodiments of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of 2/21 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with OFDM signaling.

FIG. 22 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of 3/28 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with OFDM signaling.

FIG. 23 illustrates an embodiment of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using OFDM signaling with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation on an AWGN communication channel.

FIG. 24 illustrates an embodiment of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using OFDM signaling with an exponential decaying PDP Rayleigh fading communication channel QPSK modulation.

FIG. 25 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing including puncturing information bits in addition to parity/redundancy bits, in accordance with an effective coding rate of K/N (K and N integers) for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling.

FIG. 26 illustrates an embodiment of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using SC signaling with QPSK modulation on an AWGN communication channel.

FIG. 27 illustrates an embodiment of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using SC signaling with an exponential decaying PDP Rayleigh fading communication channel QPSK modulation.

FIG. 28A illustrates an embodiment of a method for processing header information bits thereby generating a header.

FIG. 28B illustrates an embodiment of an alternatively method for processing header information bits thereby generating a header.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The goal of digital communications systems is to transmit digital data from one location, or subsystem, to another either error free or with an acceptably low error rate. As shown in FIG. 1, data may be transmitted over a variety of communications channels in a wide variety of communication systems: magnetic media, wired, wireless, fiber, copper, and other types of media as well.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are diagrams illustrate various embodiments of communication systems, 100 and 200, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 1, this embodiment of a communication system 100 is a communication channel 199 that communicatively couples a communication device 110 (including a transmitter 112 having an encoder 114 and including a receiver 116 having a decoder 118) situated at one end of the communication channel 199 to another communication device 120 (including a transmitter 126 having an encoder 128 and including a receiver 122 having a decoder 124) at the other end of the communication channel 199. In some embodiments, either of the communication devices 110 and 120 may only include a transmitter or a receiver. There are several different types of media by which the communication channel 199 may be implemented (e.g., a satellite communication channel 130 using satellite dishes 132 and 134, a wireless communication channel 140 using towers 142 and 144 and/or local antennae 152 and 154, a wired communication channel 150, and/or a fiber-optic communication channel 160 using electrical to optical (E/O) interface 162 and optical to electrical (O/E) interface 164)). In addition, more than one type of media may be implemented and interfaced together thereby forming the communication channel 199.

To reduce transmission errors that may undesirably be incurred within a communication system, error correction, and channel coding schemes are often employed. Generally, these error correction and channel coding schemes involve the use of an encoder at the transmitter and a decoder at the receiver. Of course, any such communication device implemented within such a communication system as described herein, or other type of communication system, may itself be transceiver type communication device that includes an encoder module therein for encoding signals to be transmitted (e.g., encoding information within signals), and also includes a decoder module therein for decoding signals that are received (e.g., decoding signals to make estimate of information encoded therein).

Any of the various types and embodiments of encoding and/or decoding described herein can be employed within any such desired communication system (e.g., including those variations described with respect to FIG. 1), any information storage device (e.g., hard disk drives (HDDs), network information storage devices and/or servers, etc.) or any application in which information encoding and/or decoding is desired.

Referring to the communication system 200 of FIG. 2, at a transmitting end of a communication channel 299, information bits 201 are provided to a transmitter 297 that is operable to perform encoding of these information bits 201 using an encoder and symbol mapper 220 (which may be viewed as being distinct functional blocks 222 and 224, respectively) thereby generating a sequence of discrete-valued modulation symbols 203 that is provided to a transmit driver 230 that uses a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) 232 to generate a continuous-time transmit signal 204 and a transmit filter 234 to generate a filtered, continuous-time transmit signal 205 that substantially comports with the communication channel 299. At a receiving end of the communication channel 299, continuous-time receive signal 206 is provided to an AFE (Analog Front End) 260 that includes a receive filter 262 (that generates a filtered, continuous-time receive signal 207) and an ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) 264 (that generates discrete-time receive signals 208). A metric generator 270 calculates metrics 209 (e.g., on either a symbol and/or bit basis) that are employed by a decoder 280 to make best estimates of the discrete-valued modulation symbols and information bits encoded therein 210.

Moreover, one particular type of signal that is processed according to certain aspects and/or embodiments of the invention includes a frame composed of various fields including one of which that may be characterized as a header. Such header information included within a frame to be transmitted within a communication system in accordance with single carrier (SC) and/or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling. This encoding of header information may be effectuated in accordance with shortening, puncturing, and/or repetition.

The decoders of either of the previous embodiments may be implemented to include various aspects and/or embodiment of the invention therein. In addition, several of the following Figures describe other and particular embodiments (some in more detail) that may be used to support the devices, systems, functionality and/or methods that may be implemented in accordance with certain aspects and/or embodiments of the invention. One particular type of signal that is processed according to certain aspects and/or embodiments of the invention is an LDPC coded signal. A general description of LDPC codes is provided below as well.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of an LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code bipartite graph 300. In the art, an LDPC bipartite graph may also sometimes be referred to as a “Tanner” graph. An LDPC code may be viewed as being a code having a binary parity check matrix such that nearly all of the elements of the matrix have values of zeroes (e.g., the binary parity check matrix is sparse). For example, H=(h_(i,j))_(M×N) may be viewed as being a parity check matrix of an LDPC code with block length N.

LDPC codes are linear block codes and hence the set of all codewords xεC spans the null space of a parity check matrix, H.

Hx^(T)=0, ∀xεC  (1)

For LDPC codes, H, is a sparse binary matrix of dimension m×n. Each row of H corresponds to a parity check and a set element h_(ij) indicates that data symbol j participates in parity check i. Each column of H corresponds to a codeword symbol.

For each codeword x there are n symbols of which m are parity symbols. Hence the code rate r is given by:

r=(n−m)/n  (2)

The row and column weights are defined as the number of set elements in a given row or column of H, respectively. The set elements of H are chosen to satisfy the performance requirements of the code. The number of 1's in the i-th column of the parity check matrix, H, may be denoted as d_(v)(i), and the number of 1's in the j-th row of the parity check matrix may be denoted as d_(c)(j). If d_(v)(i)=d_(v) for all i, and d_(c)(j)=d_(c) for all j, then the LDPC code is called a (d_(v), d_(c)) regular LDPC code, otherwise the LDPC code is called an irregular LDPC code.

LDPC codes were introduced by R. Gallager in [1] referenced below (also in [2] referenced below) and by M. Luby et al. in [3] also referenced below.

[1] R. Gallager, Low-Density Parity-Check Codes, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1963.

[2] R. G. Gallager, “Low density parity check codes,” IRE Trans. Info. Theory, vol. IT-8, January 1962, pp. 21-28.

[3] M. G. Luby, M. Mitzenmacher, M. A. Shokrollahi, D. A. Spielman, and V. Stemann, “Practical Loss-Resilient Codes,” Proc. 29^(th) Symp. on Theory of Computing, 1997, pp. 150-159.

A regular LDPC code can be represented as a bipartite graph 300 by its parity check matrix with left side nodes representing variable of the code bits (or alternatively as the “variable nodes” (or “bit nodes”) 310 in a bit decoding approach to decoding LDPC coded signals), and the right side nodes representing check equations (or alternatively as the “check nodes” 320). The bipartite graph 300 (or sometimes referred to as a Tanner graph 300) of the LDPC code defined by H may be defined by N variable nodes (e.g., N bit nodes) and M check nodes. Every variable node of the N variable nodes 310 has exactly d_(v)(i) edges (an example edge shown using reference numeral 330) connecting the bit node, v_(i) 312, to one or more of the check nodes (within the M check nodes). The edge 330 is specifically shown as connecting from the bit node, v_(i) 312, to the check node, c_(j) 322. This number of d_(v) edges (shown as d_(v) 314) may be referred to as the degree of a variable node i. Analogously, every check node of the M check nodes 320 has exactly d_(c)(j) edges (shown as d_(c) 324) connecting this node to one or more of the variable nodes (or bit nodes) 310. This number of edges, d_(c), may be referred to as the degree of the check node j.

An edge 330 between a variable node v_(i) (or bit node b_(i)) 312 and check node c_(j) 322 may be defined by e=(i, j). However, on the other hand, given an edge e=(i, j), the nodes of the edge may alternatively be denoted as by e=(v(e),c(e)) (or e=(b(e), c(e))). Alternatively, the edges in the graph correspond to the set elements of H where a set element h_(ji) indicates that an edge connects a bit (e.g., variable) node i with parity check node j.

Given a variable node v_(i) (or bit node b_(i)), one may define the set of edges emitting from the node v_(i) (or bit node b_(i)) by E_(v)(i)={e|v(e)=i} (or by E_(b)(i)={e|b(e)=i}); these edges are referred to as bit edges, and the messages corresponding to these bit edges are referred to as bit edge messages.

Given a check node c_(j), one may define the set of edges emitting from the node c_(j) by E_(c)(j)={e|c(e)=j}; these edges are referred to as check edges, and the messages corresponding to these check edges are referred to as check edge messages. Continuing on, the derivative result will be |E_(v)(i)=d_(v) (or E_(b)(i)|=d_(b)) and |E_(c)(j)|=d_(c).

Generally speaking, any codes that can be represented by a bipartite graph may be characterized as a graph code. It is also noted that an irregular LDPC code may also described using a bipartite graph. However, the degree of each set of nodes within an irregular LDPC code may be chosen according to some distribution. Therefore, for two different variable nodes, v_(i) ₁ and v_(i) ₂ , of an irregular LDPC code, |E_(v)(i₁)| may not equal to |E_(v)(i₂)|. This relationship may also hold true for two check nodes. The concept of irregular LDPC codes was originally introduced within M. Luby et al. in [3] referenced above.

In general, with a graph of an LDPC code, the parameters of an LDPC code can be defined by a degree of distribution, as described within M. Luby et al. in [3] referenced above and also within the following reference [4]:

[4] T. J. Richardson and R. L. Urbanke, “The capacity of low-density parity-check code under message-passing decoding,” IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, Vol. 47, No. 2, February 2001, pp. 599-618.

This distribution may be described as follows:

Let λ_(i) represent the fraction of edges emanating from variable nodes of degree i and let ρ_(i) represent the fraction of edges emanating from check nodes of degree i. Then, a degree distribution pair (λ, ρ) is defined as follows:

${{\lambda (x)} = {{\sum\limits_{i = 2}^{M_{v}}{\lambda_{i}x^{i - 1}\mspace{14mu} {and}\mspace{14mu} {\rho(x)}}} = {\sum\limits_{i = 2}^{M_{c}}{\rho_{i}x^{i - 1}}}}},$

where M_(v) and M_(c) represent the maximal degrees for variable nodes and check nodes, respectively.

While many of the illustrative embodiments described herein utilize regular LDPC code examples, it is noted that certain aspects and/or embodiments of the invention are also operable to accommodate both regular LDPC codes and irregular LDPC codes.

It is also noted that many of the embodiments described herein employ the terminology of “bit node” and “bit edge message”, or equivalents thereof. Oftentimes, in the art of LDPC decoding, the “bit node” and “bit edge message” are alternatively referred to as “variable node” and “variable edge message”, in that, the bit values (or variable values) are those which are attempted to be estimated. Either terminology can be employed in accordance with certain aspects of the invention.

FIG. 4A illustrates an embodiment 401 of variable node update with reference to an LDPC code bipartite graph. FIG. 4B illustrates an embodiment 402 of check node update with reference to an LDPC code bipartite graph. These two diagrams may be considered in conjunction with one another.

A signal received from a communication channel undergoes appropriate demodulation (e.g., processing within an analog front end including digital sampling, filtering, gain adjustment, etc.) to generate a received bit sequence. Then, log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) are calculated for each bit location within the received bit sequence. These LLRs correspond respectively to bit nodes of the LDPC code and its corresponding LDPC bipartite graph.

During initialization, the LLRs are employed for the bit edge messages (e.g., extrinsic information) for each edge emanating from each respective variable node. Thereafter, check node processing or check node updating is performed using the original bit edge messages (e.g., the calculated LLRs). These updated check edge messages are then employed to perform bit node processing or bit node updating to update the variable node soft information for use in the next decoding iteration. The variable node soft information is then used to calculate the variable node edge messages (extrinsic information) for this next decoding iteration.

These variable node edge messages are then used in accordance with check node processing or check node updating to calculate updated check edge messages. Subsequently, these most recently updated check edge messages are then employed to perform bit node processing or bit node updating to update the variable node soft information once again.

After a final decoding iteration, which may be determined based on some parameter (e.g., a predetermined number of decoding iterations or when all syndromes of the LDPC code equal zero), the last calculated variable node soft information may undergo hard limiting (e.g., in a slicer) to generate estimates of the bits encoded within the received signal.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment 500 of a frame showing the respective portions of preamble, header, and data therein. A frame, such as a physical layer frame, that gets transmitted from a communication device into a communication channel may have the form as described in this diagram. While many of the frames described herein are described with reference to a digital format, it is of course noted that a digital signal may undergo a variety of processing (e.g., digital to analog conversion, frequency conversion, filtering [analog or digital], scaling, etc.) to generate a continuous time signal that is launched into the communication channel.

In this diagram, the frame includes a preamble, a header, and data (alternatively referred to as the payload portion of the frame). The data generally includes the actually information to be transmitted from a first location to a second location.

The preamble includes a set of sequences (which may be repetitive) for a variety of applications including: initial frame/burst detection, carrier frequency acquisition, automatic gain control (AGC), timing recovery, channel estimation, noise/interference estimation, and/or information employed for other applications.

In one design, the preamble may be the same for both the single carrier (SC) modulation and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) PHY modes of operation. The preamble may be encoded as a set of Golay sequences (or other sequences with good correlation properties) encoded using BPSK followed by ±π/2 (e.g., ±90° rotation per symbol.

Header information bits undergo encoding (e.g., using the same type of code, or variant of the same base code, as is employed to encode the data) to form the “header”. The header may be encoded/modulated using either SC modulation or OFDM. OFDM uses a certain number of data sub-carriers (e.g., 336) and a certain number of pilots/fixed sub-carriers (e.g., 16). In comparison, SC modulation may use binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation with ±π/2 (e.g., ±90° rotation per symbol. The header information bits (that undergo encoding to form the header) include all information required to make a frame self-describing. For example, the include information corresponding to modulation/coding set for the data field (e.g., code rate, code type, constellation/mapping, etc.), the length of the data in octets or time duration, and/or any additional training information (such as may be employed in accordance with beamforming in certain wireless contexts such as multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communication systems). The data field may be modulated using either SC modulation or OFDM using any of a variety of possible constellations and mappings.

A novel means is presented herein for generating the header that allows for providing a flexible header bits size for both SC (single carrier) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) physical layer (PHY). The final output size of the header may be targeted to be a predetermined size (e.g., generally X bits, or specific values such as 448 bits for a SC PHY and 672 bits for an OFDM PHY. The OFDM header and SC header encodings are aligned (e.g., use the rate 3/4 of size 672 LDPC code as base code for both models).

In the OFDM PHY, the preamble is followed by the PLCP header (e.g., shown as header in the diagram). The PLCP header consists of several fields which define the details of the physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) being transmitted. The encoding and modulation of the header in accordance with any means or equivalent presented herein. Once embodiment of the header fields are described in the following Table relating to OFDM.

TABLE OFDM - Header Fields Number Start Field Name of bits Bit Description Scrambler 7 0 bits X1-X7 of the initial scrambler state. Initialization MCS 5 7 Index into the Modulation and Coding Scheme table Length 18 12 Number of data octets in the PSDU. Range 0-262143 Additional 1 30 A value of 1 Indicates that this PPDU is PPDU immediately followed by another PPDU with no IFS or preamble on the subsequent PPDU. A value of 0 indicates that no additional PPDU follows this PPDU. Packet Type 2 31 packet type: 0 - regular packet 1 - TRN-R packet 2 - TRN-T packet 3 - Reserved Training 5 33 Length of the training field Length Aggregation 1 38 Set to 1 to indicate that the PPDU in the data portion of the packet contains an AMPDU; otherwise, set to 0. Reserved 9 39 Set to 0, ignored by receiver. HCS 16 48 Header check sequence

In this embodiment described above, all the numeric fields are encoded in unsigned binary, least significant bit first.

Alternatively, in an embodiment including the SC PHY, the preamble is followed by the PLCP header (e.g., shown as header in the diagram). The PLCP header consists of several fields which define the details of the physical layer (PHY) protocol data unit (PPDU) being transmitted. The encoding and modulation of the header in accordance with any means or equivalent presented herein. Once embodiment of the header fields are described in the following Table relating to the SCM PHY.

TABLE SCM - Header Fields Number Start Field Name of bits Bit Description Scrambler 7 0 Bits X1-X7 of the initial scrambler state Initialization MCS 5 7 Index into the Modulation and Coding Scheme table Length 18 12 Number of data octets in the PSDU. Range 0-262143 Additional 1 30 A value of 1 Indicates that this PPDU is PPDU immediately followed by another PPDU with no IFS or preamble on the subsequent PPDU. A value of 0 indicates that no additional PPDU follows this PPDU. Packet Type 2 31 packet type: 0 - regular packet 1 - TRN-R packet 2 - TRN-T packet 3 - Reserved Training 4 33 Length of the training field Length Reserved 1 37 Set to 0, ignored by receiver. Aggregation 1 38 Set to 1 to indicate that the PPDU in the data portion of the packet contains an AMPDU; otherwise, set to 0. Reserved 9 39 Set to 0, ignored by receiver. HCS 16 48 Header check sequence

Also in this embodiment described above, all the numeric fields are encoded in unsigned binary, least significant bit first.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus 600 that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header. Header information bits (e.g., those bits that includes all appropriate information to make the frame self-describing—such as those parameter described above) may be provided to a scrambler circuitry 610. After being scrambled in the scrambler circuitry 610 (using some scrambling pattern—one pattern/option of which may involve no scrambling whatsoever), these bits are then provided to a padding circuitry 620 that is operative to place at least one pad bit (e.g., a 0-valued bit) therein. The placement of where the at least one pad bit is emplaced within the bits provided to the padding circuitry 620 may be varied in different embodiments (e.g., at beginning, at end, interspersed throughout, etc.).

An encoder circuitry 630 operates by encoding padded bit block (output from the padding circuitry 620) thereby generating coded bits. Any of a variety of types of codes (e.g., an LDPC code) may be employed by the encoder circuitry 630. A shorten and/or puncture circuitry 640 may operate on the coded bits by shortening coded bits (e.g., removing padded bits) thereby generating shortened coded bits. The shortened and/or puncture circuitry 640 may also operate by puncturing at least one bit from the shortened coded bits thereby generating punctured bits. These punctured bits are passed to a spreader (repeater) 650 that is operative to perform spreading (e.g., combining, repeating, etc.) the punctured bits thereby generating a header to be emplaced within a frame to be transmitted from a communication device via a communication channel.

FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus 700 that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/8 for use in a physical layer (PHY) frame to be transmitted in accordance with single carrier (SC) signaling. This diagram shows an encoding scheme for generating an SC header beginning with 56 header information bits such that the encoding is performed in accordance with an effective rate 1/8.

These 56 header information bits undergo scrambling. Thereafter, a certain number of bits are padded thereto, and these bits then undergo encoding with a (224,56) LDPC code that is generated by shortening a (672,504) rate ¾ LDPC code. After the padded bits are removed from the coded bits output from the LDPC encoder circuitry. A spreading/repeating of these remaining bits is made using factor of 2. The effective code rate is 56/448=1/8.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus 800 that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/12 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling. In some respects, the header encoding is similar to the previous embodiment described with reference to FIG. 7, with at least one difference being that the spreading/repetition is performed using a factor of 3 (vs. 2 of the previous embodiment). This diagram shows an encoding scheme for generating an OFDM header that is generated beginning with 56 information bits and operates in accordance with an effective rate of 1/12.

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to employ more header information bits (e.g., more than 56 header information bits). For example, in some embodiments, to include information to describe all of the details corresponding to the date of the frame, a larger number of header information bits may be required.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus 900 that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of K/N (K and N integers) for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling. In certain of the previous embodiments, only shortening and repetition are employed. However, selective puncturing is also employed herein, and that puncturing is applied in a manner that allows for a relatively low performance impact of the encoding performed in the generation of the header.

For example, when more header information bits are employed (e.g., those bits that include the information that are operative to make a frame self-describing), and when a fixed output size of the eventually generated header is desirable while still employing the same base LDPC code, then selective puncturing may also be performed in accordance with the header encoding technique to the header encoding scheme. This selective puncturing may employ multiple puncturing patterns as applied to various portions of a group of bits. For example, the selective puncturing may be applied to parity/redundancy bits, to copies/duplicated portions of those parity/redundancy bits (as may be generated in accordance with repetition/spreading), to the original header information bits themselves, and/or to copies/duplicated portions of those information bits themselves.

SC PHY Header

Rather than employing a 2 time repetition of a single shortened LDPC codeword (e.g., as generated by an LDPC encoder), 2 copies of shortened and punctured LDPC codewords with 2 different puncturing patterns applied thereto may instead be employed. Of course, generally speaking, N copies of shortened and punctured LDPC codewords with N different puncturing patterns applied thereto may instead be employed (N being an integer).

OFDM PHY Header

Rather than employing a 3 time repetition of a single shortened LDPC codeword (e.g., as generated by an LDPC encoder), 3 copies of shortened and punctured LDPC codewords with 3 different puncturing patterns applied thereto may instead be employed. Of course, generally speaking, N copies of shortened and punctured LDPC codewords with N different puncturing patterns applied thereto may instead be employed (N being an integer).

With respect to any embodiment of the SC PHY header and OFDM PHY header presented herein, it is noted that any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header (e.g., rearranging of the bits in accordance with scrambling, interleaving, etc. including switching the order of any two or more bits; the order in which the header information bits, the remaining/non-punctured bits [whether they be header information bits or parity/redundancy bits] may be emplaced in the final formed header in accordance with any desired manner or order as a particular embodiment or implementation would prefer or require. For example, while many of the embodiments presented herein, the header information bits (which are repeated) are followed by the parity/redundancy bits (which are also repeated). However, the order in which these bits are included to form the final header may also be changed without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention (e.g., parity/redundancy bits firstly followed by the header information bits; alternatively: header information bits followed by parity/redundancy bits then followed by a copy/duplicate of the header information bits then followed by a copy/duplicate of the parity/redundancy bits).

Decoding

In a receiver communication device, a same decoder that is operative to perform decoding of a base LDPC code may also be employed to perform header decoding of each of a SC PHY header and an OFDM PHY header. In other words, by appropriate design and implementation of the headers (be they in accordance with SC or OFDM signaling), a single decoder may be provisioned to decode not only the various types of headers generated thereby but also the data portions of corresponding frames that have been generated in accordance with LDPC encoding as well.

In accordance with decoding, metrics or log-likelihood ratios (LLRs) (e.g., see metric generation operations with reference to FIG. 2) of repetition bits are combined (summed) with a proper scaling. Because different puncturing patterns are applied to different portions of a group of bits (e.g., that applies a first puncturing pattern to the original portion of the group of bits and a second puncturing pattern to a copied/duplicated portion of the group of bits), then intelligent combination of the LLRs may be made to recoup any coding loss that may have been incurred by the puncturing applied.

In accordance with decoding processing, the LLRs of shortened bits are known (e.g., because they correspond to bits have predetermined values such as being 0-valued bits). As such, they may be assigned to a fixed/predetermined value. Because all of the shortened bits are typically assigned a common value (e.g., bit value of 0), the LLRs corresponding thereto may all be assigned to the same fixed/predetermined value.

However, because the values of the punctured bits are unknown, the LLRs corresponding thereto are unknown and may all be assigned a predetermined value (e.g., 0). However, by using the different puncturing patterns for different repetition blocks, any unknown LLR may be avoided after combining with LLRs generated by other repetition blocks.

With these new approaches, comparing to the previous art the new encoding schemes with longer information bits will have better or equal performance after offsetting the effective code rate gain.

In the embodiment of FIG. 9, certain parameters are given including: the output size of SC header encoding=N bits (e.g., N=448), and the rate R (L,T) LDPC code, say LDPC(R), where L is the block size and T is the size of information bits.

The K header information bits (where K≦T) may undergo scrambling thereby generating the bits d(1), . . . , d(K) that then undergo padding. After padding T-K 0 bits thereto (e.g., shown as z(K+1), . . . , z(T) 0-valued bits that are padded after the K information bits (shortening)), then these K header information bits and the padded bits are provided to an LDPC encoder circuitry. Of course, it is noted that zero-valued bits (e.g., padded bits) are not transmitted via the communication channel (e.g., on the air in a wireless communication channel embodiment).

The LDPC encoder circuitry is operative to encode d(1), . . . , d(K), z(K+1), . . . , z(T) using an LDPC code, LDPC(R), to get L-T parity/redundancy bits, shown as p(1), . . . , p(L-T).

Two separate and distinct puncturing patterns are employed, depicted as punc[1] and punc[2], respectively, on L-T parity bits, respectively, to get two sub-sequences of parity bits, say p(set1)={p(i₁), p(i₂), . . . , p(i_(a))}, p(set2)={p(j_(i)), p(j₂), . . . , p(j_(b))} such that 2×K+a+b=N. It is noted that punc[1] is a subset of {1, . . . , L-T} of size L-T-a, and punc[2] is a subset of {1, . . . , L-T} of size L-T-b. The output duplicated information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(K), d(1), . . . , d(K), are followed by p(set1) and p(set2). The effective code rate of such a header encoding approach is K/N.

While this embodiment shows an example of combining the bits (e.g., using a spreading circuitry) to generate the header by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(K), d(1), . . . , d(K), are followed by p(set1) and p(set2), as described above, with respect to any embodiment of the SC PHY header and OFDM PHY header presented herein. In an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(K) followed by p(set1), followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(K), and then followed by p(set2).

It is again noted that any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header (e.g., rearranging of the bits in accordance with scrambling, interleaving, etc. including switching the order of any two or more bits; the order in which the header information bits, the remaining/non-punctured bits [whether they be header information bits or parity/redundancy bits] may be emplaced in the final formed header in accordance with any desired manner or order as a particular embodiment or implementation would prefer or require. For example, while many of the embodiments presented herein, the header information bits (which are repeated) are followed by the parity/redundancy bits (which are also repeated). However, the order in which these bits are included to form the final header may also be changed without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention (e.g., parity/redundancy bits firstly followed by the header information bits; alternatively: header information bits followed by parity/redundancy bits then followed by a copy/duplicate of the header information bits then followed by a copy/duplicate of the parity/redundancy bits).

FIG. 10 illustrates an alternative embodiment of an apparatus 1000 that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/8 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling. This embodiment employs no puncturing therein, and consequently no selective puncturing therein that applied different puncturing patterns to different portions of the block. This embodiment may be referred to as SC header encoding example 1 as having an effective rate 1/8, K=56, N=448, (672,504) LDPC code. Again, no puncturing is performed in this embodiment, i.e. punc[1]=punc[2]=Ø.

One embodiment forms the header (e.g., by using a spreader circuitry) by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(56), d(1), . . . , d(56), followed by p(1), . . . , p(168) and p(1), . . . , p(168). However, in an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(56) followed by p(1), . . . , p(168), then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(56), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(168). Again, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

FIG. 11, FIG. 12, and FIG. 13 illustrate various embodiments of an apparatus 1100, 1200, and 1300, respectively, that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/7 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling.

Referring to embodiment 1100 of FIG. 11, a greater number of header information bits are employed than in certain previous embodiments (e.g., 64 header information bits vs. 56 header information bits). In addition, puncturing of selected bits is performed in this embodiment 1100. A common puncturing pattern is applied to different portions thereof.

This embodiment 1100 may be referred to as SC header encoding example 2 as having an effective rate 1/7, K=64, N=448, (672,504) LDPC code. As can be seen, a common puncturing pattern, depicted as punc[1]=punc[2]={161, 162, . . . , 168}, is applied to the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copy generated there from.

In other embodiments, certain of the header information bits themselves may also undergo puncturing (as also presented below in other embodiments). Again, in this embodiment 1100 as well as in any embodiment presented herein, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

One embodiment forms the header (e.g., by using a spreader circuitry) by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64), d(1), . . . , d(64), followed by p(1), . . . , p(160) and p(1), . . . , p(160). However, in an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64) followed by p(1), . . . , p(160), then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(64), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(160). Again, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

Referring to embodiment 1200 of FIG. 12, a greater number of header information bits are employed than in certain previous embodiments (e.g., 64 header information bits vs. 56 header information bits). In addition, puncturing of selected bits is performed in this embodiment 1200. At least two separate and distinct puncturing patterns are applied to different portions thereof.

This embodiment 1200 may be referred to as SC header encoding example 3 as having an effective rate 1/7, K=64, N=448, (672,504) LDPC code. As can be seen, two separate and distinct puncturing patterns, depicted as punc[1]={161, 162, . . . , 168}, and punc[2]={153, 154, . . . , 160}, respectively, are applied to the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copy generated there from. After puncturing, the remaining/non-punctured bits are composed of p(153:160) and p(161:168), respectively.

This embodiment 1200 shows the puncturing being performed therein to use consecutive puncturing. For example, a consecutive/contiguous group of bits are punctured.

In other embodiments, certain of the header information bits themselves may also undergo puncturing (as also presented below in other embodiments). Again, in this embodiment as well as in any embodiment presented herein, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

One embodiment forms the header (e.g., by using a spreader circuitry) by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64), d(1), . . . , d(64), followed by p(1), . . . , p(152), followed by p(153), . . . , p(160), and p(1), . . . , p(152), followed by p(161), . . . , p(168). However, in an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64) followed by p(1), . . . , p(152), followed by p(153), . . . , p(160), then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(64), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(152), followed by p(161), . . . , p(168). Again, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

Referring to embodiment 1300 of FIG. 13, a greater number of header information bits are employed than in certain previous embodiments (e.g., 64 header information bits vs. 56 header information bits). In addition, puncturing of selected bits is performed in this embodiment 1200. At least two separate and distinct puncturing patterns are applied to different portions thereof.

This embodiment may be referred to as SC header encoding example 4 as having an effective rate 1/7, K=64, N=448, (672,504) LDPC code. As can be seen, two separate and distinct puncturing patterns, punc[1]={154, 156, . . . , 168}, punc[2]={153, 155, . . . , 167}, respectively, are applied to the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copy generated there from.

After puncturing, the remaining/non-punctured bits are composed of p(153,155,157,159,161,163,165,167) and p(154,156,158,160,162,164,166,168), respectively.

This embodiment 1300 shows the puncturing being performed therein to use non-consecutive puncturing. For example, a non-consecutive/non-contiguous group of bits are punctured. Different non-consecutive/non-contiguous portions of the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copy thereof undergo puncturing.

Again, in other embodiments, certain of the header information bits themselves may also undergo puncturing (as also presented below in other embodiments). Also, in this embodiment as well as in any embodiment presented herein, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

One embodiment forms the header (e.g., by using a spreader circuitry) by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64), d(1), . . . , d(64), followed by p(1), . . . , p(152), followed by p(153,155,157,159,161,163,165,167), and p(1), . . . , p(152), followed by p(154,156,158,160,162,164,166,168). However, in an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64) followed by p(1), . . . , p(152), followed by p(153,155,157,159,161,163,165,167), then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(64), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(152), followed by p(154,156,158,160,162,164,166,168). Again, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

In accordance with the header encoding presented herein, certain embodiments that perform header encoding (e.g., scrambled and encoded) using a single SCM block may be described as described below. The header will be encoded using a single SCM block of N_(CBPB) symbols with N_(GI) guard symbols. The bits are scrambled and encoded as follows:

(1) The input header bits (b₁, b₂, . . . , b_(LH)), where LH=64, are scrambled, starting from the eighth bit. to create d_(1s)=(q_(i), q₂, . . . , q_(LH))

(2) The LDPC codeword c=(q_(i), q₂, . . . , q_(LH), 0₁, 0₂, . . . , 0_(504-LH), p₁, p₂, . . . , p₁₆₈) is created by concatenating 504-LH zeros to the LH bits of d_(u) and then generating the parity bits p₁, p₂, . . . , p₁₆₈ such that Hc^(T)=0, where H is the parity check matrix for the rate 3/4 LDPC code.

(3) Remove bits LH+1 through 504 and bits 665 through 672 of the codeword c to create the sequence cs1=(q₁, q₂, . . . , q_(LH), p₁, p₂, . . . , p₁₆₀).

(4) Remove bits LH+1 through 504 and bits 657 through 664 of the codeword c and then XORed with the one-time pad sequence (starting from left and with the LSB the first to be used in each nibble) to create the sequence cs2=(q₁, q₂, . . . , q_(LH), p₁, p₂, . . . , p₁₅₂, p₁₆₁, p₁₆₂, . . . , p₁₆₈).

(5) cs1 and cs2 are concatenated to form the sequence (cs1, cs2). The resulting 448 bits are then mapped as π/2-BPSK. The N_(GI) guard symbols are then pre-pended to the resulting N_(CBPB) symbols.

FIG. 14 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus 1400 that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of 9/56 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling.

In this embodiment 1400, an even greater number of header information bits are employed than in certain previous embodiments (e.g., 72 header information bits vs. 64 header information bits or 56 header information bits). In addition, puncturing of selected bits is performed in this embodiment 1400. At least two separate and distinct puncturing patterns are applied to different portions thereof.

This embodiment may be referred to as SC header encoding example 5 (employing K=72 header information bits) as having an effective rate 9/56, K=72, N=448, (672,504) LDPC code. As can be seen, two separate and distinct puncturing patterns, punc[1]={153:168}, punc[2]={137:152}, respectively, are applied to the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copy generated there from.

After puncturing the 16 positions in each of the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copy generated there from, the remaining/non-punctured bits are composed of p(137:152) and p(153:168), respectively.

This embodiment 1400 shows the puncturing being performed therein to use consecutive puncturing. For example, a consecutive/contiguous group of bits are punctured.

In other embodiments, certain of the header information bits themselves may also undergo puncturing (as also presented below in other embodiments). Again, in this embodiment as well as in any embodiment presented herein, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

One embodiment forms the header (e.g., by using a spreader circuitry) by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(72), d(1), . . . , d(72), followed by p(1), . . . , p(136), followed by p(137:152), and p(1), . . . , p(136), followed by p(153:158). However, in an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64) followed by p(1), . . . , p(136), followed by p(137:152), then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(64), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(136), followed by p(153:158). Again, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

Oftentimes performance diagrams are described in the context of BLER (Block Error Rate) [or BER (Bit Error Rate)] versus E_(b)/N_(o) (ratio of energy per bit E_(b) to the Spectral Noise Density N_(o)) or SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). This term E_(b)/N_(o) is the measure of SNR for a digital communication system. When looking at such performance curves, the BLER [or BER] may be determined for any given E_(b)/N_(o) (or SNR) thereby providing a relatively concise representation of the performance of the decoding approach.

FIG. 15 illustrates an embodiment 1500 of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using single carrier (SC) signaling with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation on an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) communication channel.

The various examples 1, 2, 3, and 4 presented in certain of the previous diagrams are shown in this diagram to show the relative performance thereof based on a AWGN communication channel.

To compensate for the coding offset incurred by the different effective coding rate of 1/8 (corresponding to example 1) when compared to the effective coding rate of 1/7 (corresponding to examples 2, 3, and 4), the performance curve of example 1 is shifted appropriately to allow for an accurate comparison.

FIG. 16 illustrates an embodiment 1600 of performance comparisons of various

LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using SC signaling with an exponential decaying power delay profile (PDP) Rayleigh fading communication channel QPSK modulation.

The various examples 1, 2, 3, and 4 presented in certain of the previous diagrams are shown in this diagram to show the relative performance thereof based on an exponential decaying PDP Rayleigh fading communication channel QPSK modulation.

Again, as with the previous embodiment 1500, to compensate for the coding offset incurred by the different effective coding rate of 1/8 (corresponding to example 1) when compared to the effective coding rate of 1/7 (corresponding to examples 2, 3, and 4), the performance curve of example 1 is shifted appropriately to allow for an accurate comparison.

Performance Analysis for SC Header

A net coding gain or loss may be incurred when considering the rate loss of 1/8 comparing to 1/7. However, the net coding gain or loss of the effective rate 1/8 codes is of course offset by approximately 10 log 10((1/7)/(1/8))=0.58 dB (e.g., see doted curves in the performance diagrams as referenced above).

In comparing to the effective rate 1/8 code (e.g., example 1) and the effective rate 1/7 codes (e.g., examples 2, 3, and 4) on an AWGN channel, the following observations may be made. Example 3 and 4 have no net performance loss. Example 2 has net 0.25 dB performance loss. An absolute (not counting rate gain) SNR loss of Example 3 and 4 is 0.58 dB.

In comparing to the effective rate 1/8 code (e.g., example 1) and the effective rate 1/7 codes (e.g., examples 2, 3, and 4) on OFDM with exponentially-decaying PDP Rayleigh channel, the following observations may be made. Examples 2, 3 and 4 all have no net performance loss. An absolute (not counting rate gain) SNR loss of Examples 2, 3 and 4 is 0.58 dB.

OFDM Header Encoding Scheme

FIG. 17 illustrates an embodiment 1700 of an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of K/N (K and N integers) for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with OFDM signaling.

Again, when more header information bits are employed (e.g., those bits that include the information that are operative to make a frame self-describing), and when a fixed output size of the eventually generated header is desirable while still employing the same base LDPC code, then selective puncturing may also be performed in accordance with the header encoding technique to the header encoding scheme. This selective puncturing may employ multiple puncturing patterns as applied to various portions of a group of bits. For example, the selective puncturing may be applied to parity/redundancy bits, to copies/duplicated portions of those parity/redundancy bits (as may be generated in accordance with repetition/spreading), to the original header information bits themselves, and/or to copies/duplicated portions of those information bits themselves.

In accordance with OFDM signaling, certain operational parameters may be defined including: output size of OFDM header encoding, say N; rate R (L,T) LDPC code, say LDPC(R), where L is the block size and T is the size of information bits.

The K header information bits (where K≦T) may undergo scrambling thereby generating d(1), . . . , d(K) that then undergo padding.

The K header information bits (where K≦T) may undergo scrambling thereby generating the bits d(1), . . . , d(K) that then undergo padding. After padding T-K 0 bits thereto (e.g., shown as z(K+1), . . . , z(T) 0-valued bits that are padded after the K information bits (shortening)), then these K header information bits and the padded bits are provided to an LDPC encoder circuitry. Of course, it is noted that zero-valued bits (e.g., padded bits) are not transmitted via the communication channel (e.g., on the air in a wireless communication channel embodiment).

The LDPC encoder circuitry is operative to encode d(1), . . . , d(K), z(K+1), . . . , z(T) using an LDPC code, LDPC(R), to get L-T parity/redundancy bits, shown as p(1), . . . , p(L-T).

With respect to OFDM, more than two separate and distinct puncturing patterns are employed. Instead three separate and distinct puncturing patterns are employed, depicted as punc[1], punc[2], and punc[3], respectively, on L-T parity bits, respectively, to get two three sub-sequences of un-punctured parity bits, say p(set1)={p(i₁), p(i₂), . . . , p(i_(a))}, p(set2)={p(j₁), p(j₂), . . . , p(j_(b))}, and p(set2)=p(k₁), p(k₂), . . . , p(k_(c)) such that 3×K+a+b+c=N.

It is noted that punc[1] is a subset of {1, . . . , L-T} of size L-T-a, punc[2] is a subset of {1, . . . , L-T} of size L-T-b and punc[3] is a subset of {1, . . . , L-T} of size L-T-c. The output duplicated information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(K), d(1), . . . , d(K), are followed by p(set1), p(set2) and p(set3). The effective code rate of such a header encoding approach is K/N.

While this embodiment shows an example of combining the bits to generate the header by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(K), d(1), . . . , d(K), are followed by p(set1) and p(set2), as described above, with respect to any embodiment of the SC PHY header and OFDM PHY header presented herein.

While this embodiment shows an example of combining the bits (e.g., using a spreading circuitry) to generate the header by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(K), d(1), . . . , d(K), d(1), . . . , d(K), are followed by p(set1), p(set2), and p(set3), as described above, with respect to any embodiment of the SC PHY header and OFDM PHY header presented herein. In an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(K) followed by p(set1), followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(K), and then followed by p(set2), followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(K), and then followed by p(set3).

It is again noted that any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header (e.g., rearranging of the bits in accordance with scrambling, interleaving, etc. including switching the order of any two or more bits; the order in which the header information bits, the remaining/non-punctured bits [whether they be header information bits or parity/redundancy bits] may be emplaced in the final formed header in accordance with any desired manner or order as a particular embodiment or implementation would prefer or require. For example, while many of the embodiments presented herein, the header information bits (which are repeated) are followed by the parity/redundancy bits (which are also repeated). However, the order in which these bits are included to form the final header may also be changed without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention (e.g., parity/redundancy bits firstly followed by the header information bits; alternatively: header information bits followed by parity/redundancy bits then followed by a copy/duplicate of the header information bits then followed by a copy/duplicate of the parity/redundancy bits).

FIG. 18 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus 1800 that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header in accordance with an effective coding rate of 1/12 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with OFDM signaling.

This embodiment employs no puncturing therein, and consequently no selective puncturing therein that applied different puncturing patterns to different portions of the block. This embodiment may be referred to as OFDM header encoding example 1 as having an effective rate 1/12, K=56, N=672, (672,504) LDPC code. Again, no puncturing is performed I this embodiment, i.e. punc[1]=punc[2]=punc[3]=Ø.

One embodiment forms the header (e.g., by using a spreader circuitry) by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(56), d(1), . . . , d(56), d(1), . . . , d(56), followed by p(1), . . . , p(168), p(1), . . . , p(168), and p(1), . . . , p(168). However, in an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(56) followed by p(1), . . . , p(168), then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(56), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(168), and then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(56), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(168). Again, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

FIG. 19, FIG. 20 and FIG. 21 illustrate various embodiments of an apparatus 1900, 2000, and 2100, respectively, that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of 2/21 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with OFDM signaling.

Referring to embodiment 1900 of FIG. 19, a greater number of header information bits are employed than in certain previous embodiments (e.g., 64 header information bits vs. 56 header information bits). In addition, puncturing of selected bits is performed in this embodiment 1900. A common puncturing pattern is applied to different portions thereof.

This embodiment may be referred to as OFDM header encoding example 2 as having an effective rate 2/21, K=64, N=672, (672,504) LDPC code. As can be seen, a common puncturing pattern, depicted as punc[1]=punc[2]=punc[3]={161, 162, . . . , 168}, is applied to the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate two separate copies generated there from.

In other embodiments, certain of the header information bits themselves may also undergo puncturing (as also presented below in other embodiments). Again, in this embodiment 1900 as well as in any embodiment presented herein, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

One embodiment forms the header (e.g., by using a spreader circuitry) by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64), d(1), . . . , d(64), and d(1), . . . , d(64), followed by p(1), . . . , p(160), p(1), . . . , p(160), and p(1), . . . , p(160). However, in an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64) followed by p(1), . . . , p(160), then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(64), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(160), and then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(64), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(160). Again, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

Referring to embodiment 2000 of FIG. 20, a greater number of header information bits are employed than in certain previous embodiments (e.g., 64 header information bits vs. 56 header information bits). In addition, puncturing of selected bits is performed in this embodiment 2000. At least two separate and distinct puncturing patterns are applied to different portions thereof.

This embodiment 1200 may be referred to as OFDM header encoding example 3 as having an effective rate 2/21, K=64, N=672, (672,504) LDPC code. As can be seen, three separate and distinct puncturing patterns, depicted as punc[1]={161, 162, . . . , 168}, punc[2]={153, 154, . . . , 160}, and punc[3]={145, 146, . . . , 152}, respectively, are applied to the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copies generated there from. After puncturing, the remaining/non-punctured bits are composed of p(145:160), p(145:152)U p(161:168), p(153:168), respectively.

This embodiment 2000 shows the puncturing being performed therein to use consecutive puncturing. For example, a consecutive/contiguous group of bits are punctured. Different consecutive/contiguous portions of the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copies thereof undergo puncturing.

Again, in other embodiments, certain of the header information bits themselves may also undergo puncturing (as also presented below in other embodiments). Also, in this embodiment as well as in any embodiment presented herein, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

One embodiment forms the header (e.g., by using a spreader circuitry) by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64), d(1), . . . , d(64), and d(1), . . . , d(64), followed by p(1), . . . , p(144), followed by p(145:160), then followed by p(1), . . . , p(144), which is followed by p(145:152) U p(161:168), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(144) which is followed by p(153:168). However, in an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64) followed by p(1), . . . , p(144), followed by p(145:160), then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(64), and then followed by p(1), . . . , p(144), which is followed by p(145:152) U p(161:168), and then followed by a duplicate of the information bits, p(1), . . . , p(144) which is followed by p(153:168). Again, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

Referring to embodiment 2100 of FIG. 21, a greater number of header information bits are employed than in certain previous embodiments (e.g., 64 header information bits vs. 56 header information bits). In addition, puncturing of selected bits is performed in this embodiment 2100. At least three separate and distinct puncturing patterns are applied to different portions thereof.

This embodiment may be referred to as OFDM header encoding example 4 as having an effective rate 2/21, K=64, N=672, (672,504) LDPC code. As can be seen, three separate and distinct puncturing patterns, depicted as punc[1]=(1:8), punc[2]=(85:92), and punc[3]=(161:168), respectively, are applied to the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copies generated there from. After puncturing, the remaining/non-punctured bits are composed of p(set1)=p(9:168), p(set2)=p(1:84) U p(93:168), and p(set3)=p(1:160), respectively.

This embodiment 2100 shows the puncturing being performed therein to use consecutive puncturing. For example, a consecutive/contiguous group of bits are punctured. Different consecutive/contiguous portions of the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copies thereof undergo puncturing.

Again, in other embodiments, certain of the header information bits themselves may also undergo puncturing (as also presented below in other embodiments). Also, in this embodiment as well as in any embodiment presented herein, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

While this embodiment shows an example of combining the bits (e.g., using a spreading circuitry) to generate the header by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64), d(1), . . . , d(64), d(1), . . . , d(64), are followed by p(set1), p(set2), and p(set3), as described above, with respect to any embodiment of the SC PHY header and OFDM PHY header presented herein. In an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(64) followed by p(set1), followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(64), and then followed by p(set2), followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(64), and then followed by p(set3).

In accordance with the header encoding presented herein, certain embodiments that perform header encoding (e.g., scrambled and encoded) using a single OFDM symbol may be described as follows:

(1) The 64 header bits (b₁, b₂, . . . , b_(LH)), where LH=64, are scrambled, starting from the eighth bit, to create q=(q₁, q₂, . . . , q_(LH))

(2) The sequence q is padded with 440 zeros to obtain a total of 504 bits, (q₁, q₂, . . . , q_(LH), 0_(LH+1), 0_(LH+2), . . . , 0₅₀₄), which are then encoded using the rate-3/4 LDPC code. 168 parity bits, p₁, p₂, . . . , p₁₆₈, are generated.

(3) A sequence c₁ is generated as (q₁, q₂, . . . , q_(LH), p₉, p₁₀, . . . p₁₆₈).

(4) A sequence c₂ is generated as (q₁, q₂, . . . , q_(LH), p₁, p₂, p₈₄, p₉₃, p₉₄, . . . p₁₆₈) XORed with the one-time pad sequence (starting from left and with the LSB the first to be used in each nibble).

(5) A sequence c₃ is generated as (q₁, q₂, . . . , q_(LH), p₁, p₂, . . . p₁₆₀) XORed with the one-time pad sequence [which may be different than the one above] (starting from left and with the LSB the first to be used in each nibble).

(6) The sequences c₁, c₂ and c₃ are concatenated to form the 672-bit sequence d=(d₁, d₂, d₃, . . . , d₆₇₂)=(c₁, c₂, c₃).

(7) The 672-bit sequence, d, is then mapped as QPSK in accordance with a particular mapping of the constellation points therein, pilots (e.g., pilot symbols) are inserted and the resulting sequence is modulated as an OFDM symbol.

FIG. 22 illustrates an embodiment of an apparatus 2200 that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing, in accordance with an effective coding rate of 3/28 for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with OFDM signaling.

Referring to embodiment 2200 of FIG. 22, an even greater number of header information bits are employed than in certain previous embodiments (e.g., 72 header information bits vs. 64 header information bits or 56 header information bits). In addition, puncturing of selected bits is performed in this embodiment 2200. At least three separate and distinct puncturing patterns are applied to different portions thereof.

This embodiment may be referred to as OFDM header encoding example 5 operating on an even greater number of header information bits (e.g., K=72) and as having an effective rate 3/28, K=72, N=672, (672,504) LDPC code. As can be seen, three separate and distinct puncturing patterns, each puncturing 16 positions, respectively, are applied to the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copies generated there from. After puncturing, the remaining/non-punctured bits are composed of p(121:152), p(121:136) U p(153:168), and p(137:168), respectively.

This embodiment 2200 shows the puncturing being performed therein to use consecutive puncturing. For example, a consecutive/contiguous group of bits are punctured. Different consecutive/contiguous portions of the parity/redundancy bits and the duplicate copies thereof undergo puncturing.

Again, in other embodiments, certain of the header information bits themselves may also undergo puncturing (as also presented below in other embodiments). Also, in this embodiment as well as in any embodiment presented herein, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

While this embodiment shows an example of combining the bits (e.g., using a spreading circuitry) to generate the header by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(72), d(1), . . . , d(72), d(1), . . . , d(72), are followed by p(set1), p(set2), and p(set3), as described above, with respect to any embodiment of the SC PHY header and OFDM PHY header presented herein. In an alternative embodiment, the header is generated by employing the information bits, e.g., d(1), . . . , d(72) followed by p(set1), followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(72), and then followed by p(set2), followed by a duplicate of the information bits, d(1), . . . , d(72), and then followed by p(set3).

FIG. 23 illustrates an embodiment 2300 of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using OFDM signaling with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation on an AWGN communication channel.

The various examples 1, 2, 3, and 4 presented in certain of the previous diagrams are shown in this diagram to show the relative performance thereof based on a AWGN communication channel.

To compensate for the coding offset incurred by the different effective coding rate of 1/12 (corresponding to example 1) when compared to the effective coding rate of 2/21 (corresponding to examples 2, 3, and 4), the performance curve of example 1 is shifted appropriately to allow for an accurate comparison.

FIG. 24 illustrates an embodiment 2400 of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using OFDM signaling with an exponential decaying PDP Rayleigh fading communication channel QPSK modulation.

Performance Analysis for OFDM Header

A net coding gain or loss may be incurred when considering rate loss of 1/12 comparing to 2/21. However, the net coding gain or loss of the effective rate 1/12 codes is of course should offset by approximately 10 log 10((2/21)/(1/12))=0.58 dB (e.g., see doted curves in the performance diagrams as referenced above).

In comparing to the effective rate 1/12 code (e.g., example 1) and the effective rate 2/21 codes (e.g., examples 2, 3, and 4) on an AWGN channel, the following observations may be made. Example 3 has no net performance loss. Example 4 has net 0.25 dB performance gain. An absolute (not counting rate gain) SNR loss of Example 4 is 0.25 dB.

In comparing to the effective rate 1/12 code (e.g., example 1) and the effective rate 2/21 codes (e.g., examples 2, 3, and 4) on OFDM with exponentially-decaying PDP Rayleigh channel, the following observations may be made. Example 3 has 0.12 dB net performance gain. Example 4 has net 0.25 dB performance gain. An absolute (not counting rate gain) SNR loss of Example 4 is 0.25 dB.

FIG. 25 illustrates an embodiment of 2500 an apparatus that is operative to process header information bits thereby generating a header, by employing selective puncturing including puncturing information bits in addition to parity/redundancy bits, in accordance with an effective coding rate of K/N (K and N integers) for use in a PHY frame to be transmitted in accordance with SC signaling.

A General Header Encoding (Including Selective Puncturing of Information Bits)

These embodiments show how not only may parity/redundancy bits be selectively punctured, but the header information bits themselves (e.g., those bits that include the information that makes the frame self-describing) may be selectively punctured. As shown in other embodiments herein where two or more puncturing patterns may be applied to the parity/redundancy bits and any duplicate copies generate there from, similarly two or more puncturing patterns may be applied to the header information bits and any duplicate copies generate there from.

In accordance with SC signaling, certain operational parameters may be defined including: output size of the header encoding, say N; rate R (L,T) LDPC code, say LDPC(R), where L is the block size and T is the size of information bits.

The K header information bits (where K≦T) may undergo scrambling thereby generating to get c(1), . . . , c(K) that then undergo padding. After padding T-K 0 bits thereto (e.g., shown as z(1), . . . , z(T-K) 0-valued bits that are padded after the K information bits (shortening)), then these K header information bits and the padded bits are provided to an LDPC encoder circuitry. Of course, it is noted that zero-valued bits (e.g., padded bits) are not transmitted via the communication channel (e.g., on the air in a wireless communication channel embodiment).

The LDPC encoder circuitry is operative to encode c(1), . . . , c(K), z(1), . . . , z(T-K) using an LDPC code, LDPC(R), to get the output bits that includes parity/redundancy bits, shown as c(1), c(2), . . . , c(K), c(K+1), . . . , c(K+L-T).

Thereafter, M separate and distinct puncturing patterns, depicted as punc[1], punc[2], . . . , punc[M], respectively, are applied on the K+L-T c bits, respectively, to get the following sub-sequences: c(set1)=c(i_(i)), c(i₂), . . . , c(i_(a1)); c(set2)=c(j₁), c(j₂), . . . , c(j_(a2)); . . . ; c(setM)=c(k₁), c(k₂), . . . , c(k_(aM)), respectively, such that a1+a2+ . . . +aM=N.

The output sets of bits, c(set1), c(set2), . . . , c(setM), are output in any preferred order. The effective code rate of such a header encoding approach is K/N.

This embodiment may be referred to as SC header encoding example 6 as having an effective rate 1/7, K=64, N=448, (672,504) LDPC code.

As can be seen, two separate and distinct puncturing patterns, punc[1]={63 64 217 218 219 220 221 222}, and punc[2]={225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232}, respectively, are applied to the various bits output from the LDPC encoder circuitry (including the header information bits output there from) and the duplicate copy generated there from.

After puncturing, the remaining/non-punctured bits are composed of c(set1)=c(1:62) U c(65:216) U c(223:232) and c(set2)=c(1:224), respectively.

This embodiment 2500 shows the puncturing being performed therein to use non-consecutive/non-contiguous puncturing. For example, a non-consecutive/non-contiguous group of bits are punctured. Different non-consecutive/non-contiguous portions of the various bits output from the LDPC encoder circuitry (including the header information bits output there from) and the duplicate copies thereof undergo puncturing.

In this embodiment, certain of the header information bits themselves have undergo puncturing. Also, in this embodiment as well as in any embodiment presented herein, any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header.

While this embodiment shows an example of combining the bits to generate the header by employing the first set c(set1) followed by the c(set2), as described above, with respect to any embodiment of the SC PHY header and OFDM PHY header presented herein, it is again noted that any desired means of combination of the bits may be made to generate the final header (e.g., rearranging of the bits in accordance with scrambling, interleaving, etc. including switching the order of any two or more bits; the order in which the header information bits, the remaining/non-punctured bits [whether they be header information bits or parity/redundancy bits] may be emplaced in the final formed header in accordance with any desired manner or order as a particular embodiment or implementation would prefer or require. For example, while many of the embodiments presented herein, the header information bits (which are repeated) are followed by the parity/redundancy bits (which are also repeated). However, the order in which these bits are included to form the final header may also be changed without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention (e.g., parity/redundancy bits firstly followed by the header information bits; alternatively: header information bits followed by parity/redundancy bits then followed by a copy/duplicate of the header information bits then followed by a copy/duplicate of the parity/redundancy bits).

FIG. 26 illustrates an embodiment 2600 of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using SC signaling with QPSK modulation on an AWGN communication channel.

The various examples 1, 4, and 5 presented in certain of the previous diagrams are shown in this diagram to show the relative performance thereof based on a AWGN communication channel.

To compensate for the coding offset incurred by the different effective coding rates, the performance curve of example 1 is shifted appropriately to allow for an accurate comparison.

FIG. 27 illustrates an embodiment 2700 of performance comparisons of various LDPC codes, each employing a respective header encoding approach, using SC signaling with an exponential decaying PDP Rayleigh fading communication channel QPSK modulation.

The various examples 1, 4, and 5 presented in certain of the previous diagrams are shown in this diagram to show the relative performance thereof based on an exponential decaying PDP Rayleigh fading communication channel QPSK modulation.

Again, as with the previous embodiment 2600, to compensate for the coding offset incurred by the different effective coding rates, the performance curve of example 1 is shifted appropriately to allow for an accurate comparison.

FIG. 28A illustrates an embodiment of a method 2800 for processing header information bits thereby generating a header.

Referring to method 2800 of FIG. 28A, the method 2800 begins by scrambling header information bits thereby generating scrambled header information bits, as shown in a block 2810. The method 2800 continues by padding at least one bit (e.g., 0-valued bits) to the scrambled header information bits thereby generating padded bit block, as shown in a block 2820.

The method 2800 then operates by encoding padded bit block thereby generating coded bits, as shown in a block 2830. The method 2800 continues by shortening coded bits (e.g., removing padded bits) thereby generating shortened coded bits, as shown in a block 2840. The method 2800 then operates by puncturing at least one bit from the shortened coded bits thereby generating punctured bits, as shown in a block 2850.

The method 2800 continues by spreading (e.g., combining, repeating, etc.) the punctured bits thereby generating header, as shown in a block 2860. The method 2800 then operates by emplacing header within frame, as shown in a block 2870.

FIG. 28B illustrates an embodiment of an alternatively method 2800 for processing header information bits thereby generating a header.

Referring to method 2801 of FIG. 28B, the method 2801 begins by duplicating at least one portion of coded bits (or shortened coded bits) (e.g., parity/redundancy bits of LDPC codeword) thereby generating duplicated bits, as shown in a block 2811. The method 2801 then operates by puncturing, in accordance with a first puncturing pattern, at least one bit from the shortened coded bits thereby generating first punctured bits, as shown in a block 2821.

The method 2801 continues by puncturing, in accordance with a second puncturing pattern, at least one bit from the shortened coded bits thereby generating second punctured bits, as shown in a block 2831. The method 2801 then operates by spreading (e.g., combining, repeating, etc.) the first punctured bits and the second punctured bits thereby generating header, as shown in a block 2841. The method 2800 then operates by emplacing header within frame, as shown in a block 2851.

It is noted that the various modules (e.g., encoding modules, decoding modules, header encoding modules, etc.) described herein may be a single processing device or a plurality of processing devices. Such a processing device may be a microprocessor, micro-controller, digital signal processor, microcomputer, central processing unit, field programmable gate array, programmable logic device, state machine, logic circuitry, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or any device that manipulates signals (analog and/or digital) based on operational instructions. The operational instructions may be stored in a memory. The memory may be a single memory device or a plurality of memory devices. Such a memory device may be a read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), volatile memory, non-volatile memory, static memory, dynamic memory, flash memory, and/or any device that stores digital information. It is also noted that when the processing module implements one or more of its functions via a state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry, the memory storing the corresponding operational instructions is embedded with the circuitry comprising the state machine, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and/or logic circuitry. In such an embodiment, a memory stores, and a processing module coupled thereto executes, operational instructions corresponding to at least some of the steps and/or functions illustrated and/or described herein.

The present invention has also been described above with the aid of method steps illustrating the performance of specified functions and relationships thereof. The boundaries and sequence of these functional building blocks and method steps have been arbitrarily defined herein for convenience of description. Alternate boundaries and sequences can be defined so long as the specified functions and relationships are appropriately performed. Any such alternate boundaries or sequences are thus within the scope and spirit of the claimed invention.

The present invention has been described above with the aid of functional building blocks illustrating the performance of certain significant functions. The boundaries of these functional building blocks have been arbitrarily defined for convenience of description. Alternate boundaries could be defined as long as the certain significant functions are appropriately performed. Similarly, flow diagram blocks may also have been arbitrarily defined herein to illustrate certain significant functionality. To the extent used, the flow diagram block boundaries and sequence could have been defined otherwise and still perform the certain significant functionality. Such alternate definitions of both functional building blocks and flow diagram blocks and sequences are thus within the scope and spirit of the claimed invention.

One of average skill in the art will also recognize that the functional building blocks, and other illustrative blocks, modules and components herein, can be implemented as illustrated or by discrete components, application specific integrated circuits, processors executing appropriate software and the like or any combination thereof.

Moreover, although described in detail for purposes of clarity and understanding by way of the aforementioned embodiments, the present invention is not limited to such embodiments. It will be obvious to one of average skill in the art that various changes and modifications may be practiced within the spirit and scope of the invention, as limited only by the scope of the appended claims. 

1. An apparatus, comprising: a padding circuitry that is operative to pad at least one bit to a plurality of header information bits thereby generating a padded bit block; an LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) encoder circuitry, coupled to the padding circuitry, that is operative to encode the padded bit block thereby generating a plurality of LDPC coded bits; a shorten/puncture circuitry, coupled to the encoder circuitry, that is operative to: shorten at least one bit within the plurality of LDPC coded bits that corresponds to the at least one bit padded to the plurality of header information bits thereby generating a plurality of shortened coded bits; perform repetition coding on the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating at least one duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits; puncture at least one of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating a first plurality of remaining bits; and puncture at least one of the at least one duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating a second plurality of remaining bits; and a spreader circuitry, coupled to the shorten/puncture circuitry, that is operative to process the first plurality of remaining bits and the second plurality of remaining bits thereby generating a header.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a scrambler circuitry that is operative to scramble the plurality of header information bits before the plurality of header information bits is provided to the padding circuitry.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the header is emplaced into a signal that is launched from the apparatus into a communication channel using single carrier signaling.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the spreader circuitry is operative to generate the header by arranging: the plurality of header information bits; followed by a duplicate of plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; and followed by the second set of remaining bits.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the spreader circuitry is operative to generate the header by arranging: the plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; followed by a duplicate of plurality of header information bits; and followed by the second set of remaining bits.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the at least one duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits includes a first duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits and a second duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits; and the shorten/puncture circuitry is operative to: puncture at least one of the first duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating the second plurality of remaining bits; and puncture at least one of the second duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating a third plurality of remaining bits; and the spreader circuitry is operative to process the first plurality of remaining bits, the second plurality of remaining bits, and the third plurality of remaining bits thereby generating the header.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein: the header is emplaced into a signal that is launched from the apparatus into a communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling.
 8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the spreader circuitry is operative to generate the header by arranging: the plurality of header information bits; followed by a first duplicate of plurality of header information bits; followed by a second duplicate of plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; followed by the second set of remaining bits; and followed by the third set of remaining bits.
 9. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the spreader circuitry is operative to generate the header by arranging: the plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; followed by a first duplicate of plurality of header information bits; followed by the second set of remaining bits; followed by a second duplicate of plurality of header information bits; and followed by the third set of remaining bits.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the apparatus is operative to generate a frame that includes the header and data; and the header indicates a plurality of information corresponding to the frame or data including frame length, a code type by which the data are encoded, a code rate by which the data are encoded, and at least one modulation by which symbols of the data are modulated.
 11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the apparatus is a communication device; and the communication device is implemented within at least one of a satellite communication system, a wireless communication system, a wired communication system, and a fiber-optic communication system.
 12. An apparatus, comprising: a scrambler circuitry that is operative to scramble a plurality of header information bits thereby generating a scrambled plurality of header information bits; a padding circuitry that is operative to pad at least one bit to a scrambled plurality of header information bits thereby generating a padded bit block; an LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) encoder circuitry, coupled to the padding circuitry, that is operative to encode the padded bit block thereby generating a plurality of LDPC coded bits; a shorten/puncture circuitry, coupled to the encoder circuitry, that is operative to: shorten at least one bit within the plurality of LDPC coded bits that corresponds to the at least one bit padded to the scrambled plurality of header information bits thereby generating a plurality of shortened coded bits; perform repetition coding on the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating at least one duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits; employ a first puncturing pattern to puncture at least one of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating a first plurality of remaining bits; and employ a second puncturing pattern to puncture at least one of the at least one duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating a second plurality of remaining bits; and a spreader circuitry, coupled to the shorten/puncture circuitry, that is operative to process the first plurality of remaining bits and the second plurality of remaining bits thereby generating a header; and wherein: the apparatus is operative to generate a frame that includes the header and data; and the header indicates a plurality of information corresponding to the frame or data including frame length, a code type by which the data are encoded, a code rate by which the data are encoded, and at least one modulation by which symbols of the data are modulated.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein: the header is emplaced into a signal that is launched from the apparatus into a communication channel using single carrier signaling.
 14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the spreader circuitry is operative to generate the header by arranging: the scrambled plurality of header information bits; followed by a duplicate of the scrambled plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; and followed by the second set of remaining bits.
 15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the spreader circuitry is operative to generate the header by arranging: the scrambled plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; followed by a duplicate of the scrambled plurality of header information bits; and followed by the second set of remaining bits.
 16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein: the at least one duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits includes a first duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits and a second duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits; and the shorten/puncture circuitry is operative to: puncture at least one of the first duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating the second plurality of remaining bits; and puncture at least one of the second duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating a third plurality of remaining bits; and the spreader circuitry is operative to process the first plurality of remaining bits, the second plurality of remaining bits, and the third plurality of remaining bits thereby generating the header.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein: the header is emplaced into a signal that is launched from the apparatus into a communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling.
 18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the spreader circuitry is operative to generate the header by arranging: the scrambled plurality of header information bits; followed by a first duplicate of the scrambled plurality of header information bits; followed by a second duplicate of the scrambled plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; followed by the second set of remaining bits; and followed by the third set of remaining bits.
 19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the spreader circuitry is operative to generate the header by arranging: the scrambled plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; followed by a first duplicate of the scrambled plurality of header information bits; followed by the second set of remaining bits; followed by a second duplicate of the scrambled plurality of header information bits; and followed by the third set of remaining bits.
 20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein: the apparatus is a communication device; and the communication device is implemented within at least one of a satellite communication system, a wireless communication system, a wired communication system, and a fiber-optic communication system.
 21. A method, comprising: padding at least one bit to a plurality of header information bits thereby generating a padded bit block; employing an LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) encoder circuitry to encode the padded bit block thereby generating a plurality of LDPC coded bits; shortening at least one bit within the plurality of LDPC coded bits that corresponds to the at least one bit padded to the plurality of header information bits thereby generating a plurality of shortened coded bits; performing repetition coding on the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating at least one duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits; employing a first puncturing pattern to puncture at least one of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating a first plurality of remaining bits; and employing a second puncturing pattern to puncture at least one of the at least one duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating a second plurality of remaining bits; and processing the first plurality of remaining bits and the second plurality of remaining bits thereby generating a header.
 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising: scrambling the plurality of header information bits before padding the at least one bit to the plurality of header information bits.
 23. The method of claim 21, further comprising: emplacing into a signal that is launched into a communication channel using single carrier signaling.
 24. The method of claim 21, further comprising generating the header by arranging: the plurality of header information bits; followed by a duplicate of plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; and followed by the second set of remaining bits.
 25. The method of claim 21, further comprising generating the header by arranging: the plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; followed by a duplicate of plurality of header information bits; and followed by the second set of remaining bits.
 26. The method of claim 21, wherein: the at least one duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits includes a first duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits and a second duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits; and the shorten/puncture circuitry is operative to: puncture at least one of the first duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating the second plurality of remaining bits; and puncture at least one of the second duplicate of the plurality of shortened coded bits thereby generating a third plurality of remaining bits; and the spreader circuitry is operative to process the first plurality of remaining bits, the second plurality of remaining bits, and the third plurality of remaining bits thereby generating the header.
 27. The method of claim 26, further comprising: emplacing into a signal that is launched into a communication channel using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling.
 28. The method of claim 26, further comprising generating the header by arranging: the plurality of header information bits; followed by a first duplicate of plurality of header information bits; followed by a second duplicate of plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; followed by the second set of remaining bits; and followed by the third set of remaining bits.
 29. The method of claim 26, further comprising generating the header by arranging: the plurality of header information bits; followed by the first set of remaining bits; followed by a first duplicate of plurality of header information bits; followed by the second set of remaining bits; followed by a second duplicate of plurality of header information bits; and followed by the third set of remaining bits.
 30. The method of claim 21, wherein: the apparatus is operative to generate a frame that includes the header and data; and the header indicates a plurality of information corresponding to the frame or data including frame length, a code type by which the data are encoded, a code rate by which the data are encoded, and at least one modulation by which symbols of the data are modulated.
 31. The method of claim 21, wherein: the method is performed within a communication device; and the communication device is implemented within at least one of a satellite communication system, a wireless communication system, a wired communication system, and a fiber-optic communication system. 